Cambridge, John Field, 1665. Edition unknown 1665, 12mo, approximately 135 x 40 mm, 5 3/8 x 2¾ inches, printed in Greek throughout, title page with narrow border of fleurs de lys, separate title page for Psalter with publisher's device, pages: (36), 126, (4), 115, (1 - with printer's device), 117-171, the 115 page Psalter is inserted between page 126 and 117 of main text as in other copies, page numbers 117 to 126 duplicated, but not the text. Bound in contemporary calf, small blind stamped lozenge to centre of covers, crude amateur reback in similar leather, no label or lettering. Binding worn, crazed and scraped, neat name on front endpapers with date 1823, faint name at top of title page and 1 small ink erasure, title page faintly browned, small closed tear to top edge of 1 prelim page, neatly repaired, some upper margins trimmed, just shaving the running title in 1or 2 places, final 2 pages slightly dusty, a little pencil scribble in blank area of final page. A good clean copy. Griffiths, Bibliography of the Book of Common Prayer, page 503, No. 45.3. MORE IMAGES ATTACHED TO THIS LISTING, ALL ZOOMABLE. FURTHER IMAGES ON REQUEST. POSTAGE AT COST.

Hackiana, Lugd. Batav.et Roterod, 1665. 12mo - over 6¾ - 7¾" tall. Bound in contemporary yap edged paneled velum with decorative oval blind in center of panels. Early Roman history from Gaius Sallustius Crispus (known as Sallust) edited and annotated by Antoine Thysius and Joannes Gronovius. Engraved title page, all edges dyed red, armorial book plate of R. A. Burd inside front board. Bind is clean square and tight, previous owners name in old quill on flys and very small on title page. Book is in Latin and Greek. [24], 534, [45]pp. [Attributes: Hard Cover]

Jean Sambix le jeune 'à la sphère' , Leyden, 1665, 12mo, pp [6], 407, , FIRST EDITION, one of the several issues from the same year. The publication of the first collected edition of Brantome by Stucker Brothers of the Hague is discussed in Willems; but the present volume, he asserts is not an Elzevir production, but by Foppens. 'Vie de Dames' remains one of the most famous classics of female biography. Expertly restored contemporary binding: calf, 4 raised bands, gilt ornaments and title on spine [Attributes: First Edition; Hard Cover]

Rome: Fabio di Falco, 1665. Cassini's theory of comets. First editions of these two exceptionally rare publications on the comet of 1664-5, which was observed my many astronomers, including Auzout, Borelli, Fabri, Hooke, Hevelius, Petit, and Newton as a studnt. The second work is also especially notable for containing the first published description of Jupiter's Great Red Spot. Cassini observed the comet "in the presence of Queen Christina [to whom the first work is dedicated] and formulated on this occasion a new theory (in agreement with the Tychonian system) in which the orbit of the comet is a great circle whose center is situated in the direction of Sirius and whose perigee is beyond the orbit of Saturn" (DSB). The large engraved plate depicts the course of the comet in the southern celestial hemisphere from December 13, 1664 through the middle of January, 1665; it also shows the appearance and direction of the comet's tail. Cassini's detailed observations were made with a powerful new telescope which he describes in the preface to the first work. "Through his friendship with the famous Roman lens-makers Giuseppe Campani and Eustachio Divini, Cassini, beginning in 1664, was able to obtain from them powerful celestial telescopes of great focal length. He used these instruments--very delicate and extremely accurate for the time-- with great skill, and made within several years a remarkable series of observations..." (ibid). OCLC lists Brown (lacking plate) for the first work, and Brown, Cornell, Ohio State for the second. ABPC/RBH lists one copy of Theoriae, bound with L
… [Click Below for Full Description]

Rome: Fabio di Falco, 1665. Cassini's theory of comets. First editions of these two exceptionally rare publications on the comet of 1664-5, which was observed my many astronomers, including Auzout, Borelli, Fabri, Hooke, Hevelius, Petit, and Newton as a studnt. The second work is also especially notable for containing the first published description of Jupiter's Great Red Spot. Cassini observed the comet "in the presence of Queen Christina [to whom the first work is dedicated] and formulated on this occasion a new theory (in agreement with the Tychonian system) in which the orbit of the comet is a great circle whose center is situated in the direction of Sirius and whose perigee is beyond the orbit of Saturn" (DSB). The large engraved plate depicts the course of the comet in the southern celestial hemisphere from December 13, 1664 through the middle of January, 1665; it also shows the appearance and direction of the comet's tail. Cassini's detailed observations were made with a powerful new telescope which he describes in the preface to the first work. "Through his friendship with the famous Roman lens-makers Giuseppe Campani and Eustachio Divini, Cassini, beginning in 1664, was able to obtain from them powerful celestial telescopes of great focal length. He used these instruments--very delicate and extremely accurate for the time-- with great skill, and made within several years a remarkable series of observations..." (ibid). OCLC lists Brown (lacking plate) for the first work, and Brown, Cornell, Ohio State for the second. ABPC/RBH lists one copy of Theoriae, bound with L
… [Click Below for Full Description]

Rome: Fabio di Falco, 1665. Cassini's theory of comets. First editions of these two exceptionally rare publications on the comet of 1664-5, which was observed my many astronomers, including Auzout, Borelli, Fabri, Hooke, Hevelius, Petit, and Newton as a studnt. The second work is also especially notable for containing the first published description of Jupiter's Great Red Spot. Cassini observed the comet "in the presence of Queen Christina [to whom the first work is dedicated] and formulated on this occasion a new theory (in agreement with the Tychonian system) in which the orbit of the comet is a great circle whose center is situated in the direction of Sirius and whose perigee is beyond the orbit of Saturn" (DSB). The large engraved plate depicts the course of the comet in the southern celestial hemisphere from December 13, 1664 through the middle of January, 1665; it also shows the appearance and direction of the comet's tail. Cassini's detailed observations were made with a powerful new telescope which he describes in the preface to the first work. "Through his friendship with the famous Roman lens-makers Giuseppe Campani and Eustachio Divini, Cassini, beginning in 1664, was able to obtain from them powerful celestial telescopes of great focal length. He used these instruments--very delicate and extremely accurate for the time-- with great skill, and made within several years a remarkable series of observations..." (ibid). OCLC lists Brown (lacking plate) for the first work, and Brown, Cornell, Ohio State for the second. ABPC/RBH lists one copy of Theoriae, bound with L
… [Click Below for Full Description]

Rome: Fabio di Falco, 1665. Cassini's theory of comets. First editions of these two exceptionally rare publications on the comet of 1664-5, which was observed my many astronomers, including Auzout, Borelli, Fabri, Hooke, Hevelius, Petit, and Newton as a studnt. The second work is also especially notable for containing the first published description of Jupiter's Great Red Spot. Cassini observed the comet "in the presence of Queen Christina [to whom the first work is dedicated] and formulated on this occasion a new theory (in agreement with the Tychonian system) in which the orbit of the comet is a great circle whose center is situated in the direction of Sirius and whose perigee is beyond the orbit of Saturn" (DSB). The large engraved plate depicts the course of the comet in the southern celestial hemisphere from December 13, 1664 through the middle of January, 1665; it also shows the appearance and direction of the comet's tail. Cassini's detailed observations were made with a powerful new telescope which he describes in the preface to the first work. "Through his friendship with the famous Roman lens-makers Giuseppe Campani and Eustachio Divini, Cassini, beginning in 1664, was able to obtain from them powerful celestial telescopes of great focal length. He used these instruments--very delicate and extremely accurate for the time-- with great skill, and made within several years a remarkable series of observations..." (ibid). OCLC lists Brown (lacking plate) for the first work, and Brown, Cornell, Ohio State for the second. ABPC/RBH lists one copy of Theoriae, bound with L
… [Click Below for Full Description]

Rome: Fabio di Falco, 1665. Cassini's theory of comets. First editions of these two exceptionally rare publications on the comet of 1664-5, which was observed my many astronomers, including Auzout, Borelli, Fabri, Hooke, Hevelius, Petit, and Newton as a studnt. The second work is also especially notable for containing the first published description of Jupiter's Great Red Spot. Cassini observed the comet "in the presence of Queen Christina [to whom the first work is dedicated] and formulated on this occasion a new theory (in agreement with the Tychonian system) in which the orbit of the comet is a great circle whose center is situated in the direction of Sirius and whose perigee is beyond the orbit of Saturn" (DSB). The large engraved plate depicts the course of the comet in the southern celestial hemisphere from December 13, 1664 through the middle of January, 1665; it also shows the appearance and direction of the comet's tail. Cassini's detailed observations were made with a powerful new telescope which he describes in the preface to the first work. "Through his friendship with the famous Roman lens-makers Giuseppe Campani and Eustachio Divini, Cassini, beginning in 1664, was able to obtain from them powerful celestial telescopes of great focal length. He used these instruments--very delicate and extremely accurate for the time-- with great skill, and made within several years a remarkable series of observations..." (ibid). OCLC lists Brown (lacking plate) for the first work, and Brown, Cornell, Ohio State for the second. ABPC/RBH lists one copy of Theoriae, bound with L
… [Click Below for Full Description]

First edition Bologna: heirs of Vittorio Benacci for Girolamo Bernia, 1665. A fine copy of Grimaldi's only publication. This very important book contains the first account of the diffraction of light discovered by the author and it marks the first scientific attempt to establish a comprehensive wave theory of light.?Macclesfield 943 (lacking the 2nd title); Arnoud de Vitry 429; Honeyman 1559.The diffraction experiments which Grimaldi describes here show "that a new mode of transmission of light had been discovered and that this mode contradicts the notion of an exclusively rectilinear passage of light. Diffraction thus gave prima facie evidence for a fluid nature of light. The name 'diffraction' comes from the loss of uniformity observed in the flow of a stream of water as it 'splits apart' around a slender obstacle placed in its path." (DSB).Grimaldi repeatedly states that colors are not something different from light but are modifications of light produced by the fine structure of the bodies which reflect it, and probably consisting of an alteration in the type of motion and in the velocity of the light. The different colors are produced when the eye is stimulated by light oscillations whose velocities differ. All these views were of fundamental importance for the subsequent development of optics.Newton was aware of Grimaldi's work, though only secondhand. The Englishman's great contribution to the knowledge of diffraction is his set of careful measurements which made clear the periodic nature of the phenomenon.Provenance: old inscription to letter press title,
… [Click Below for Full Description]